Threads has added its own version of Twitter lists as well as a new Media tab in profiles to further refine and improve its Twitter-like experience.

That’s the pretty direct inspiration for these updates.

First, Threads is gradually introducing a new Media tab on user profiles, the same one available on X, so you can more easily access all the image and video posts shared by a user.

As you can see in this example, the Threads Media tab basically allows you to filter all profiles’ posts by image and video updates only.

This is handy if you’re looking for specific updates or want to get a quick overview of what a profile is posting about. And again, X already has this, so it really brings the functionality of threads up to par with the competition.

The same goes for the new feed option for threads.

As you can see in this example, posted Ahmed Ghanem, Threads users are now encouraged to create their own custom feeds “with multiple keywords or profiles tailored to your interests.”

Like X-Feeds, this allows you to create a separate list of posts from selected users, which you can then add as a separate stream that you can access from the main app interface.

This makes it easier to stay up to date with specific current discussions and interests by creating custom lists consisting of either profiles or keyword searches, which you can sort by “Most Recent” to see the most recent messages.

You can’t just set “Most Recent” as the default, so you have to toggle this every time. This is a bit annoying, but the fact is that Meta generates a lot more user interaction through algorithmic feeds, so while there is the ability to toggle if you want, it’s not really in Meta’s interest to drive users away from its system-defined rankings.

The updates are in line with Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri’s promise to integrate more Twitter-like features into the app, even if he doesn’t believe they will noticeably increase engagement.

Back in February, Mosseri noted that lists in particular, while in high demand among users, are probably not as big a deal as people think.

“My honest opinion is that requested features like lists, an edit button, a follow feed, trends, and hashtags are all good to build, but none of them noticeably increase threads or threads usage. We’ll keep building them because it’s good to build features that your most engaged users are excited about, but it’s hard to prioritize them when the measurable impact is negligible.”

I’m not sure I completely agree, but Mosseri suggests that these features don’t necessarily bring more users to the app, which is the Threads team’s primary focus, because more users lead to more engagement, which is the main incentive for promoting Threads.

I do think that lists and feed options offer more reasons and opportunities for engagement, while hashtags are good for engaging in real-time discussions. They are not as valuable as they once were, as social media algorithms now better understand the broader context of each post. But even so, I think these elements could be more valuable than Mosseri seems to suggest when working with a real-time app.

I guess we’ll find out as Threads continues to add Twitter-like features to better align the app with overall usage trends.